Sounds Like a Stodgy Corporation, Dances Like a Dream

May 24, 2005

What if Hockman, Hogan & Howard really were a law firm, not three mature dance veterans sharing a show? Laurie Hockman and Katherine Howard would work earnestly, tirelessly on your case; Sue Hogan would bring the Johnnie Cochran flash. Menuett #3, the edgier of Hogan’s two numbers, finds the choreographer at the mercy of young Heather Sakima, who restrains her with Saran wrap. Though Sakima takes movement orders from her superior, both women know who maintains control of the scissors. Howard’s solo Butterfly would look at home on an ice rink: a perfect 10 for skills, transitions, performance/ execution, choreography, and interpretation. Her Meanwhile the Wild Geese . . . (think Mary Oliver) sends five women in frocks soaring in and out of migratory formation through “clean blue air . . . heading home again.” Hardly Oliver’s “harsh and exciting” vision, but pleasing nonetheless, as was Hockman’s close to the sun again . . . the way up and the way down are one and the same.